Rain and Rune at Indian Wells

INDIAN WELLS — The temperature dropped as quickly as some of the top men’s seeds. People showed up with their racquets when what they really needed were umbrellas. For a while Tuesday you couldn’t be sure whether you were at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells or at the All England Championships at Wimbledon. 

Or because one of the matches Monday night didn’t finish until 11:39 p.m. New York is the city that never sleeps. Indian Wells, like neighboring Palm Springs, inhabited largely by retirees, is a place that goes to bed early.

You can always find somewhere to eat in New York. Here most dining places close at 9. That’s roughly two and a quarter hours before Grigor Dimitrov defeated good old (emphasis on both good and old; he’s 38) Gael Monfils, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6. The match lasted three hours and one minute.

Dimitrov, who ranks No. 14, faces Carlos Alcarez, the No. 3 seed and defending champion.  True, the Dimitrov-Monfils battle—which included a 34-stroke rally won by Dimitrov—went on and on.

Yet weather conditions were favorable. It had been in the mid-80s in the afternoon and still was pleasant well after the sun went down. Tuesday, however, was a different story—relatively speaking, brr. The high barely reached the low 60s. Then came the rain, halting play in the early afternoon and again, not so briefly, after a restart. But the downpour eventually passed, and the tennis continued. One result, in keeping with the tournament’s surprises, stood out: Holger Rune of Denmark defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, 6-4, 6-4.

The ladies, unlike their male counterparts, have been doing what was predicted. On Tuesday that trend continued, with former world number one and two-time Indian Wells winner, Iga Swiatek beating Karolina Muchova, 6-1, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals.

Against the talented Muchova, the Pole won more breakpoints (5) than committed unforced errors (4).

Swiatek obviously is on a determined run to regain the women’s Number One ranking, now held by Aryna Sabalenka. That should be a very interesting confrontation should they meet, the type that will bring even more attention to a sport, which too often gets the headlines for items other than the actual competition.

Such as, say, the weather.

We’re told it rains only 14 days a year in the arid Coachella Valley. Ironically some of those 14 days have been during the BNP Paribas Open. A bummer, but as they say in songs, the sun always will shine.

Even for those players knocked out in the early rounds.